At BMSZC Petrik Lajos Bilingual Vocational School in Budapest, EU Code Week has grown into a living tradition. For the past eight years, English and ICT teacher and Leading Teacher Eva Tóth has been turning Code Week into a five-day journey where vocational students discover coding, robotics and digital creativity in a way that feels hands-on, social and fun.

Each Code Week at Petrik brings together 12 student teams supported by 4 mentors and more than 10 student organisers. Activities run for 45 to 90 minutes a day, with tasks that become gradually more challenging as the week unfolds.

All three sectors of the school take part, involving different grades and explicitly encouraging girls to join and stay engaged. In recent years, the chemistry section of the school has even “hosted” one day of the week, showing how coding and digital thinking can connect with STEM subjects beyond computer science.

The programme is built around a central topic that ties the whole week together. Students are invited to move from simple DIY digital tasks to more complex lab activities and robotics projects. Gamification plays a key role as well: Easter eggs and daily challenges keep learners curious, motivated and eager to come back the next day.

Mystery on Pixel Express

One of the highlights of Petrik’s Code Week is the family-friendly workshop “Mystery on Pixel Express”. Now in its second year, this 90-minute session opens the doors of the school to guests such as parents, grandparents and siblings.

Through playful activities, participants are introduced to the basics of algorithmic thinking, robotics and artificial intelligence. Last year, the same concept was turned into a digital escape room with a thematic storyline, proving that you can mix narrative, puzzle-solving and coding concepts in a single engaging format.

The oldest participant so far has been an 81-year-old grandmother, a reminder that digital skills and curiosity are not limited by age.

CodeWeek4All challenge

Petrik Lajos School also takes part in the CodeWeek4All challenge, either by building a set of at least ten joint activities or by collaborating with partners in at least three countries coding together.

This international dimension reinforces the message that VET learners are part of a wider European community of coders, makers and digital creators.

Making Code Week a VET tradition

For VET providers, the Petrik example shows that EU Code Week can be more than a one-off event. With a bit of structure, student involvement and creativity, it can become a yearly tradition that cuts across subjects, sectors, age groups and even generations.

From classroom tasks to robotics labs, from chemistry to AI, and from local teamwork to cross-border cooperation, Code Week in VET can be a powerful way to make digital skills visible, accessible and enjoyable for everyone.